Toll roads in Jacksonville to return in 2016 or 2017

Miner: Move is good for St. Johns County commuters

Jacksonville will be getting toll lanes for the first time in over a generation in 2016 or 2017.

But the new tolls will look nothing like what voters got rid of in 1989.

On Thursday, the Florida Department of Transportation announced it was widening three sections of Interstate 295 by adding two lanes. Those new lanes, one in each direction, will be tolled.

Tolling will be done electronically, with no toll booths. A similar system is now in place on Interstate 95 in Miami and Interstate 85 in Atlanta.

The existing lanes of I-295 will remain free, with the two toll lanes functioning as an “express lane” for people who want to get through traffic faster. A barrier of some kind will be installed to keep the free and toll lanes separate.

Toll lanes will be installed from the Buckman Bridge to Interstate 95, from the Dames Point Bridge to Interstate 95 and from Butler Boulevard to Florida 9B. The cost will be $150 million in construction, with a total cost of around $200 million when design, environmental studies and the cost of land is factored in, said Northeast Florida District Secretary Greg Evans.

The cost of the toll will likely vary depending on time of day and how many people are using the express lanes, a concept that transportation officials refer to as “dynamic pricing.”

“We’ll raise the price when there are too many vehicles in those lanes, and lower it when there aren’t enough,” said FDOT Development Engineer James Bennett.

People believe the goal is to maximize revenue, he said, but the real goal is to always have a balance between the number of vehicles in the express lane compared to the free lanes.

The revenue will go toward maintaining I-295 and other roads in Northeast Florida, Bennett said.

There are no revenue projections since the state doesn’t know how much it will charge in tolls, but long term the state expects to make back the money it spent to build the toll lanes.

Tolls will be collected using a fully automated system called SunPass, which has become ubiquitous in areas like Interstate 95 in Miami and on the Florida Turnpike.

SunPass allows traffic to move at full speed through a toll area that automatically deducts tolls from a credit card account via a transponder that has been attached to the front windshield of someone’s car.

Bennett said 50,000 people in Northeast Florida already own a SunPass for when they travel to other parts of the state.

“So we know this concept will not be completely alien to everyone,” he said.

If someone doesn’t have a transponder in their car, the license plate is photographed and a bill is sent to the owner of the car.

Most local officials reacted positively to the news Thursday. But Evans acknowledged that the general public would not be as enthusiastic.

“There will be a major education campaign launched before this begins,” he said.

Jacksonville Transportation Board Chairman Edward Burr, who was previously chairman of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, said the toll lanes would help with economic development.

“When I was the chair of the Chamber of Commerce commute times were always a big concern for businesses looking to come,” Burr said, adding that the new lanes would help the area’s job recruitment ability.

Easier for commuters

St. Johns County Commissioner Mark Miner said the new lanes would benefit his constituents.

“It’s important to remember that 40 percent of our workforce goes to work in Duval every day,” Miner said. “This should make it easier for them.”

Jacksonville had tolls on the Mathews, Hart, Fuller Warren and Trout bridges and on Butler Boulevard — and were planned for the new Dames Point bridge — until Duval County voters approved a 1988 referendum, with 51 percent of the vote, to replace tolls with a local half-cent sales tax. The tolls went away in 1989, and the tax is still in place.

Tommy Hazouri, who was mayor at the time and pushed to get rid of the tolls, criticized the planned toll lanes.

“If this goes forward, then the city should give back the money it collected from the sales tax,” he said.

People agreed to tax themselves because the city agreed to never bring tolls back. And even though this is the state and not the city, it’s still a violation of trust, Hazouri said.

This is the second time in two years that the state has come into Northeast Florida with a tolling plan. Last year the state announced it was moving forward with plans to build the First Coast Outer Beltway from Interstate 10 in Duval County to Blanding Boulevard in Clay County as a toll road. However, nothing has happened since that announcement.

FDOT spokesman Dick Kane recently said the state is evaluating proposed projects, including the Beltway, from a return on investment perspective.

The state’s long-term plan is to build the road from Interstate 10 to Interstate 95 in St. Johns County, with a private company doing most of the construction and then assessing the tolls. But the state has been unable to find a private partner that thinks it can make money on the project.

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approach !!! don't use them, don't pay,,use them & pay !!! where's the beef ??? truth be told,, the state & city should have given more thought to long term road building,, apparently no one in n.e. florida or Tallahassee had the foresight to envision the future of crowded, outdated 2 lane highways.. butler blvd is a mess by I-95,, can't believe they tolled folks for that ??? amazing !!! trouble with highways is any improvements are always 20 years too late & 3 lanes too short !!!>>>yathink